Covering entire bottom of truck with plastic
 

I was thinking about going to home depot and getting a couple sheets of plastic to cut and fit to the bottom of my truck. Also getting some Clear packing tape to tape up all of the small gaps in the front of my truck and block the lower grill opening.


What do you guys use to cover the bottom of your vehicles?

Hey man ... I don't want to knock your enthusiasm here, but with just one tank on your vehicle log, why not master your driving techniques first, then consider modding your vehicle? You'll save the most gas by changing your habits then tweek it with mods ...

It would set up a good baseline and show you exactly how far you can go just by adjusting your driving rather than guessing by adding or deleting many things off your ride right off the bat. JMO, though.

Coroplast and aluminum flashing around the exhaust.

trikkonceptz is right though. You'll gain far more mileage by driving better than by doing simple mods.

Daox -

What Daox and trikkonceptz said. This way, you can also be master planning your mod before you buy the stuff for it. See what techniques other people have used for their belly pans and all that.

CarloSW2

I for one think there is nothing wrong with modding your car right off the bat, certain things WILL improve fuel economy, like a bellypan... I haven't gotten finished calibrating my scanguage yet and I've already modded away with some grill blocks!

I'd agree that good driving technique is the first step, but modding is what the forum is all about, right?

I would avoid sheet plastic like the plague, if you're talking about roll plastic. The last thing you need is for it to warp up around your catalytic converter and set your truck on fire.

I haven't seen any semirigid plastic at Home Despot. In any case, keep plastic away from hot components.

If you want to experiment with roll material, get some wide aluminum window screen. It will work well to smooth out airflow, isn't flammable, and allows ventilation to get to the exhaust system to prevent excessive heat buildup.

Unless you have a bed cover, preferably sloping from the back of the cab to the tailgate, I doubt you'll see any measureable differences from grill tweaks.

my truck is running on 2x burnt exhaust valves so getting the mpg im getting is pretty good. Before i changed my driving techniques i was averaging 16.5 mpg. I never run the A/C even here in SWFL. My truck lacks in the aero departments big time.

My point exactly, get your rig running right first, it will be the best money spent with the quickest gains. In the end you're driving a brick. I just had a conversation with my body man which is making my wheel covers and the permanent alterations to my bumper etc ... and we talked about cutting the roof and changing the slope and removing the windows, etc ... all excellent ideas and well within the realm of possibilities, but then I stopped him and said, "Wait, we just changed my car into the Prius, the whole point of this is to make my current car as efficient as possible, not turning into something its not ...

SO I still think you get every dime out of what you have and hopefully with the money you save you can then get something with a more efficient baseline.

Laterz ..

I would like to add, beyond just driving techniques I am a firm believer that a well-maintained vehicle gets better mpg also. So, time to do the oil change and spark plugs and air filter and fuel filter and all that stuff, start keeping up on that...

Just doing ALL of the maintenance I can do myself helps me gain 10-20% better mpg, the rest, yes, is driving.

That is what I see all too often, just like they say...
Folks all excited about making these extreme modifications...
Yet the car hasn't seen any real maintenance since its purchase, so to speak.
And the driving is just everyday stuff, too.

So yeah...
Driving and DIY car maintenance first, mods later.

I change the plugs/wires/cap/rotor/fuel filter etc. when they are supposed to. Maintenance is a huge thing with me. I used to run nitrous and i had a turbocharger on the truck before and without the proper maintenance i dont think it would run anymore. I was running 14psi through the motor with just tuning on 93 octane. Truck was making 360whp & 455ft.lbs of torque and it actually got about ~21mpg with the turbo. was running a small T3/T04e 60trim turbocharger .63 a/r and it was great. turbo would spool @ about a 1/4 throttle make some boost and i was off barely on the throttle.

Burnt up the valves when i switched to a 70mm turbocharger on only 7psi but beat on it and the motor didnt like it obviously.